Losing My Religion

Well…not exactly.But losing the idea of religion I had when I was growing up and have had for most of my adult life.

Here is what continues to be important to me:

Compassion

Gratitude

Wonder

Awe

Doing my part to make the communities in which I live and the world of which I am a part better today than they were yesterday

Trying to name and to face those parts of myself that block my ability to see myself in another or to recognize those moments of grace when they brush up against my life.

All of which has something to do with what I know and name as God.

What I am losing is my interest in religion that feels judgmental or dogmatic or which is more focused on rules than meeting people where and how they are or which says there is one only way to believe or to worship or to be or to talk about God. What I know and name as God is bigger and bolder and more wonderful and more mysterious than any one way or one understanding or even any one religion.

But, here is the challenge for me as someone whose professional life has been and is tied up with organized religion (for a very long time, now). For so long, the focus has been on how to bring people into the church. In here (church) is where people came to “find” God. That no longer works so well for me – either practically in my day-in, day-out experience or at the heart of what I believe. So, what does that mean for how I work? And, what I offer to others of what I think I know? And, how I invite others to explore the best of who we are and the best of who we can be together?